FRESNO, Calif. — Craig Eady, 44, of Auberry died Monday, Sept. 7, 2026, in a hospital of injuries from Saturday’s plane crash near Sierra Sky Park Airport, the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office confirmed, according to reporting by the New York Post.

His death brings the toll to four. Flight instructor Danna Eady, 41, and their sons Pavel, 10, and Remus, 13, died over the weekend after the fixed-wing, single-engine aircraft went down near the San Joaquin River around 2 p.m. Saturday on the 7300 block of N. Blythe Avenue. The boys were declared dead at the scene; Danna later died in the hospital. The couple’s eldest children, Lucien, 17, and Felicity, 18, are orphaned.

Sheriff’s deputies, Fresno firefighters, and police responded to wreckage on a bluff near the river as flames tore across a nearby hillside. Firefighters extinguished the blaze and kept it from spreading to nearby homes, the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement cited by the Post.

Friend Nick Wilcox, who owns Soar Paso flight school in Paso Robles, told the Post the family had been heading to an airshow. He said Danna was a fellow flight instructor who had flown with him numerous times: “She was a very special soul.”

What caused the crash remains under investigation. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are involved, with the NTSB taking the lead, the Post reported.

Sources